So Long and Thanks for the Fish -- Migrating from FrameMaker to Flare

[Alan Litchfield]

Interestingly, Syed's comments mirror my own trajectory but I have been 
using LaTeX et al for as long as I have been using FrameMaker.

I doubt I will be moving past version 10 unless my clients continue to 
request I upgrade (to match compatibility with their software). I doubt 
I will be taking any short term licensing options because files are not 
created for short term use.

Importantly for me, TeXLive is free and has a strong and vibrant user base.

Alan



On 29/10/13 7:22 AM, Syed Zaeem Hosain (Syed.Hosain at aeris.net) wrote:
>
> Hi, Joseph.
>
> You are not the only one who is abandoning FrameMaker … if you look at 
> my posts in the past months, I have done the same although I have been 
> using it since 1988 off and on. I am still on the list for old times 
> sake, though. J
>
> Please do send me your detailed reasons in an off-list e-mail – would 
> like to know /your/ decision trigger! For me, it was the (a) recent 
> over-pricing for some version upgrades that should have been done as 
> free bug fixes, (b) the Adobe trend (albeit not yet announced for 
> FrameMaker) to SAAS as the only licensing mechanism, and (c) their 
> abandonment of small users (i.e., number of licenses) from their 
> multi-year update licensing system.
>
> Today, *all* my new documents are no longer in FrameMaker. I am /only/ 
> using it for maintaining and changing old documents, and if the change 
> is large enough, I move it off FrameMaker. That takes a couple of days 
> – even for the large documents – and then I am fine for the future! In 
> time, all my old documents will be moved from FrameMaker.
>
> However, I have not chosen Flare as my platform, although it looks 
> quite capable. Switching to it is expensive (of course, if they made 
> me a $199 one-time offer to switch from FrameMaker to Flare, I would 
> do it! J)
>
> For now, /for my needs (which may not apply to everybody)/, a 
> combination of Word 2013 for short documents (less than 10 to 20 
> pages), and LaTex (for large multi-hundred page specifications) is 
> proving quite workable. Not perfect, and not as flexible as 
> FrameMaker, but the costly “upgrades” of FrameMaker is not acceptable, 
> and the trend to equally costly SAAS is a deal-breaker.
>
> BTW, LaTeX in particular allows me to achieve **complete** 
> look-and-feel consistency in my specifications – formatting is 
> separate from text entry – and I value that highly. It was my reason 
> for selecting FrameMaker over Word about 12 years ago for my current 
> company.
>
> Regards, and good luck!
>
> Z
>
> *From:*framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com 
> [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] *On Behalf Of *Joseph 
> Lorenzini
> *Sent:* Saturday, October 26, 2013 10:13 AM
> *To:* FrameMaker Forum; TCS-Users at googlegroups.com
> *Subject:* So Long and Thanks for the Fish -- Migrating from 
> FrameMaker to Flare
>
> Hi all,
>
> I have used FrameMaker for over 5 years. I have used it to produce 
> thousands of pages of documentation. And I honestly thought that FM 
> was a great tool...for a time. Plus, the community was super helpful.
>
> So its with some regret that I am telling you that I am leaving this 
> community and the TCS suite. I am adopting Flare as a replacement. 
> Please note I am no evangelist of Flare nor do I think that there's 
> One Right Tool. FrameMaker can be a great solution for some and if 
> works for you then great. The reasons why I made this choice were 
> driven by a specific business and use case
>
> There are many reasons for this but that would cause this post to grow 
> quite large and I didn't want to flood this community with a gigantic 
> post about why I am not using its tool anymore.
>
> That said, my experience of why and how i migrated may be of interest 
> to others in this forum. If you'd like a detailed explanation and are 
> curious to learn more, I would be happy to share those details with 
> you offline. Feel free to email me.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Joseph Lorenzini
>
>
>
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-- 
Dr Alan Litchfield
AlphaByte
PO Box 1941
Auckland, New Zealand 1140